RS Charts: After Long Hiatus, Tool Debut at Number One With ‘Fear Inoculum’

Old-school sales helped Tool’s Fear Inoculum earn nearly 250,000 album-equivalent units during its debut week — and Number One on the latest RS 200. Fear Inoculum, the band’s first album in 13 years, amassed just 26.5 million streams across its 10 tracks, some of which stretch past the ten-minute mark. But CDs and downloads accounted for around 90% of the band’s album units. (Tool’s lead singer, Maynard James Keenan, was accused of sexual assault on Twitter last year. No charges have been filed to date.)

After debuting at Number One last week with over 900,000 album-equivalent units, Taylor Swift’s Lover floated back down to earth, earning more than 70,000 in sales and more than 110 million streams in its second week. Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell arrived at Number Three with over 100,000 album-equivalent units, making this the rare week that three different albums all cleared the 100,000 threshold.

The Rolling Stone 200 Albums chart tracks the most popular releases of the week in the United States. Entries are ranked by album units, a number that combines digital and physical album sales, digital song sales, and audio streams using a custom weighting system. The chart does not include passive listening such as terrestrial radio or digital radio. The Rolling Stone 200 Albums chart is updated daily, and each week Rolling Stone finalizes and publishes an official version of the chart, covering the seven-day period ending with the previous Thursday.

Aside from the fireworks at the top of the chart, there few other major debuts on the latest RS 200. Lil Tecca’s debut, We Love You Tecca, arrived at Number Four with close to 70,000 album-equivalent units. Sheryl Crow’s Threads, which was packed with famous guests, debuted at Number 28, with almost all of its units coming from sales. And SiR, the latest R&B singer to emerge from Top Dawg Entertainment, the home of Kendrick Lamar and SZA, debuted at Number 61.